WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?
SOME say Jesus was an outlaw who hung out with unschooled ruffians and went about causing trouble.
Some say He was a magician, who could do tricks like turn water to wine, walk on water and read your mind. They say the real showstopper was that He could even raise people from the dead.
Some say Jesus was a just a wise man like Mohammed or Buddha. They say people would come from miles around to hear Him philosophize.
The Jews say He was just another bastard, an illegitimate child born out of wedlock, and was quite worthy of the death which He suffered.
There are many opinions about Jesus. Yes, it seems everyone has an opinion on the subject. To me, that just reinforces the position which I take; and that is that He was not just another man.
I am one of those people who says that He was and is and ever shall be God! The Bible says that He was ‘Immanuel’, or ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14).
As God, He deserves our respect, our allegiance, our loyalty, our all! For those of us who are His, He is our King! And He should be regarded as such. Too often in religious circles today (especially so with the youth) we overemphasize His humanity and make Him out to be a ‘pal’ or a ‘buddy’.
Yes, He is our friend; and by His own Word, He even called His followers ‘friends’ (John 15:15). But don’t forget the grounds for being His friend; He said we are His friends if we do whatsoever He commands (verse 14 of the very sarne chapter).
Yes, He is our friend – the best friend you or I could ever hope to have; but He is so very much more. He is our God and our King! He is the great creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them, for ‘without Him was not anything made that was made’ (John 1:3). He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, the God of the universe (our God) who took upon Himself human flesh to redeem His own from their lost state. He is our everything! He is ‘the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). Everything begins and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 1.8), and He will ultimately be all in all (Colossians 3:11), for He will draw all unto Himself (John 12:32). PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!!
He is not to be addressed ‘Yo, Dude!’, ‘Main Man’ or ‘J.C.’, or by any other such disrespectful appellation which is to be heard in rnany youth groups and ‘christian’ concerts these days. While in Britain last year, I was watching the evening news with some friends, and there came on to the screen a news story about a famous Christian recording artist who lives here in America. There was video of some young people on a stage doing what can only be described as ‘jungle dancing’, while the entire stadium full of people addressed the Lord and Master, the creator and sustainer of all life, as ‘J.C.’! The news commentator wondered what in the round world any of that had to do with christlanity, and I must say I wonder the same thing.
He is not just one of the guys! And He is not your ‘gofer’ either. He doesn’t exist for us; we exist to live for Him and to give Him pleasure (Ecelesiastes 12:13; Revelation 4:1)!
Jesus Christ said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He told people that if they had seen Him, they had seen God (John 10:30). To make such statements, He was either a blithering idiot, or a stupendous liar, or else He was exactly who He said He was: GOD!
If you do not believe me, study His life for yourself. He did not claim to speak for God; He sald ‘Verily, verily I say unto you’ and ‘You have heard it said … but behold I say unto you …’ Jesus referred to Himself as the Great I AM (John 6:35; 8:12,58; etc.).
Also, let His works speak for themselves (John 14:11).There’s more than enough evidence out there for me and this evidence is not found in the Bible alone. The secular historian Josephus (1st century A.D.) even wondered in his writings if it were lawful to call Him a ‘rnan’, ‘for he was a doer of wonderful works’ and ‘He was [the] Christ’ (Antiquities: Book XVIII, Chapter 3:3).
The clincher, however, is the resurrection. A man can make many a claim for himself, but when he pulls something like that off, he is no mere man! ‘And there were over 500 witnesses to the resurrected Christ! And if they were all liars, Josephus could have set the matter straight; but he confirmed it (ibid).
Even so there is a growing group of ‘Higher Critics’ and ‘Bible Scholars’ which still seem to be hell-bent on ‘proving’ that Jesus was just a another man. They have also determined that He didn’t even say many of the things which He is quoted as saying in the Holy Bible! Some of you may have read about that. They have whittled away the Bible to suit their own ideas, and they are always quite the ‘scholar’ when they commit such heresies. I even heard one so-called ‘theologian’, a professor, at a seminary, say on national television that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had never even met Jesus personally. And he said it with such an ‘I know what I’m talking about’ attitude that many people probably believed it! These wolves in sheep’s clothing have crept in to undermine the deity of Jesus and the authority of the Holy Bible. And these ignorant men and women (God forbid) are teaching our future congregational leaders?! God help the coming generation!!
Jesus is God (Colossians 2:9)! He was God when He made the heavens (John 1:3); He was God when He died on the cross, and when He rose up from the dead (Luke 1: 68); and He will be God when every knee shall bow to Him and when every tongue shall confess Him as LORD (Rornans 14:10-12 with Philippians 2:10).
I ask you today … Who do YOU say He is?
